Monday, September 19, 2005

USA Patriot Act and e-books

This is the campaign to have the USA Patriot Act amended so that Federal agents cannot access people's library and bookstore records to see what they've been reading. Librarian in particular are concerned about this because they feel reader privacy is very important for minority and underpriviledged groups, such as teenagers who want to read about safe sex in an abstinence-only culture. The groups involved are "strongly committed to an individual's right to read what he or she chooses without the government's knowledge or interference."

While the Patriot Act is not of issue to Australians (until our own government decides to follow suit), I'm pointing out this aspect of it because we already buy books from US companies like Amazon, and once digital books really get started, it'll be that much easier for governments to track what people are reading, including 'people of interest' from other countries. Of course, our online buying patterns are already monitored by marketers, and I don't particularly like that, but I find the idea that a government might watch what reading material I choose to download/buy electronically and make assumptions or decisions about me very creepy. I wonder how much these privacy issues will come to affect the growth of e-books and e-publishing, which can seem very anonymous but is actually more traceable than going in person to a bookstore and paying cash for a book about how to build bombs (for example, no intention of doing this, don't arrest me, Mr Federal Agent, sir!)

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